Murlough Cottage, 17 Murlough Road, Goodland Tl, Ballycastle, Co.Antrim

Murlough Cottage is a detached single-storey house with attic, built around 1830, situated at the end of Murlough Road in the townland of Goodland, overlooking Murlough Bay on the County Antrim coast west of Fairhead. The building is set within a publicly accessible park designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest.

The house is rendered in rough-cast cement, painted white with a smooth rendered plinth course, and presents an asymmetrical facade. It is rectangular on plan, facing northeast with a projecting front entrance porch. The pitched roof is covered in artificial slate tiles with black clay ridge tiles, extending over a rear extension, and cement coping to the gable ends. Four rendered chimney stacks with lead flashing are capped and sit at roof level. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes complete the rainwater goods.

The front elevation features an off-centre gable-fronted entrance porch with a segmental-headed window opening to the front and a square-headed door opening to the right cheek, fitted with a replacement timber door. Windows throughout are square-headed with painted concrete sills and replacement multi-pane double-glazed top-hung timber casement windows. The northeast side elevation is gabled with a large square-headed window and a smaller window to the left. The rear elevation is multi-bay with a lean-to extension spanning the right half, featuring diminutive window openings and aluminium skylights. The southwest gabled side elevation rises to two storeys and includes a pair of diminutive attic-level windows with replacement four-pane timber casement windows. A low rendered wall abuts the northeast corner.

The building was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 as a simple rectangular structure. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 identified it as leased by the Earl of Antrim to Daniel Clarke, a local farmer. The Clarke family occupied the cottage for at least seventy years. The 1901 Census recorded Daniel Clarke (son of the earlier occupant) and his two siblings living there, describing it as a second-class dwelling of nine rooms with associated outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a barn. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904 shows the cottage had been lengthened since the mid-19th century. James Stewart, a local farmer, occupied the property by 1936, having purchased it from the Earl of Antrim. Mrs Mary McCloy lived at Murlough Cottage from around 1945 through at least 1972.

Although internal features and original finishes have been lost through modernisation, the cottage remains well proportioned with modest detailing typical of a rural dwelling of its period. It is described as a plain, calm building, pleasantly simple, and is significantly enhanced by its idyllic coastal setting. In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society noted that while Murlough Cottage was not in itself architecturally significant, it possessed enormous importance as a simple and traditional element in one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in Ireland. The building was listed in 1978.

A diminutive rubblestone outbuilding stands southeast of the house, with raised skews and a natural slate roof, originally used as a pig house or hen house. This outbuilding is included within the listing.